Brendan Sodikoff was buyer of three Lincoln Park lots for $6.7M

Local restaurateur Brendan Sodikoff is loading up on Lincoln Park land.

The head of hospitality firm Hogsalt that runs well-known restaurants including the acclaimed Au Cheval bought three adjacent lots in Lincoln Park for $6.7 million total, though his plans for the site remain a mystery, Crain’s reported.

The properties at 1954 through 1962 North Fremont Street, all of which hold homes and span a combined 12,000 square feet of land, were purchased by a legal entity managed by Sodikoff between December 2021 and August.

If the restaurateur demolished the structures to build a new estate, current zoning would allow for a maximum house size of roughly 24,000 square feet, which would likely cost somewhere between $17 million and $24 million, depending on construction materials.

Sodikoff wouldn’t be the only one to replace an assemblage of Lincoln Park structures with an even bigger one if he goes that route.

Developer BDG&C pulled off another ultra-pricey land sale last year when a buyer paid $9 million for a quadruple lot in Lincoln Park, likely setting a neighborhood record for the most expensive sale of land alone.

And in Winnetka, Billionaire Justin Ishbia has been turning heads in Winnetka, as he’s in the process of razing three mansions on Lake Michigan’s shoreline in preparation for an epic $44 million home construction project. Its projected cost of $77.7 million, including the purchases of the homes he bought to tear down, would set a new record in the Chicago area for the most anyone has paid for a single residence.

Such projects have also become more common in Lincoln Park since the early 2000s. With Chicago’s standard lot size of 25 feet by 125 feet, some buyers acquire several to build their dream mansion. Others buy a home nearby their existing residence to tear down so they can enlarge their yard space.

The biggest of Sodikoff’s properties is the one at 1954 North Fremont, totaling 6,000 square feet, while the other two are 3,000 square feet. He has not yet filed plans to build a new home or demolish the existing structures on the property.

— Quinn Donoghue